Michael Kay reflects on getting the call to be Yankees' play-by-play man for YES Network
YES announcer Michael Kay from very first Yankees YES telecast, a spring training game on March 19, 2002. Credit: YES Network
The date was March 19, 2002.
Twenty-four years ago, the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network debuted with a half-hour introduction show followed by the broadcast of a live Yankees spring training game.
Michael Kay was behind the mic for the game.
In 2026, Kay is still behind the mic for most Yankees games.
Kay, a former Yankees beat reporter for the Daily News, spent 10 years in the radio booth with John Sterling before legendary YES honcho John Filippelli tapped Kay to be the first main play-by-play announcer for the new regional sports network.
It almost didn’t happen. George Steinbrenner didn’t want to break up Sterling and Kay.
“Obviously, I knew George from writing and then the 10 years doing the radio,” Kay told Newsday in a recent telephone interview. “But when Flip suggested me to him, he absolutely said no. He said, ‘No way.’ He said, ‘I'm not breaking up Kay and Sterling. He said, ‘That's the best stuff we have.’ Flip said, ‘TV is more important. This is your network. It's going to mean so much more.’
“[Steinbrenner] goes, ‘No, I'm not breaking them up.’ So I guess there were different names and everything that was thrown out and Flip just kept coming back to me. He had some kind of belief in me. And he kept going back to George. He said, ‘You gotta let me have Kay and you can find somebody else to do the radio.’ And then from Flip’s telling of the story, George said, ‘OK, fine, but if it doesn't work out, it's your [expletive].’ ”
If longevity is any guide, it worked out.
“I don't know,” Kay said. “Some might say no.”
That’s typical Michael Kay. He has an ego, sure. You have to if you’re going to survive this many years in the Yankees' booth and the same span as an ESPN New York radio talk show host.
But Kay also has a charming pinch-me, is-this-real quality that makes you understand how lucky this now 65-year-old kid from the Bronx knows he is to have gotten his dream job.
“I was stunned,” Kay said. “It wasn't even on my radar. I was doing a game, I think it was in July or August of 2001, and this guy walks in the booth. That year, for some reason, I went on this like crash diet where I lost like 45, 50 pounds. This guy walks in the booth and says, ‘You look better on TV thin. You should keep the weight off.’
“I go, ‘Oh, thanks.' And then he walked out. I said, ‘Who was that guy?' Someone says, ‘John Filippelli. The guy's going to run the YES Network.’ I never even put two and two together because really, I truly felt that if I was with John [Sterling] for the next 30 years, I was cool. Being the second guy to John, that was more than I ever dreamed of. But I never inquired about being part of the YES Network. So when they offered me the job, I was flabbergasted. Flabbergasted, stunned, whatever word you'd want to use. I was blown away.”
The opening of that first YES broadcast is still on YouTube. Kay welcomes fans to the new network (in an ironic twist, he plugs the simulcast of his future radio talk show rivals, “Mike and the Mad Dog”). Kay ends by noting that YES was able to coax the recently retired Paul O’Neill into a role on the pre- and postgame shows.
“If you think starting a network was tough,” Kay says with a smile, “how about convincing Paul O’Neill he was going to be a broadcaster?”
Steinbrenner wasn’t sure about that, either.
“Flip, he's the one who suggested it to George Steinbrenner, and Steinbrenner said, ‘The rightfielder? Are you out of your mind?’ ” Kay said. “He goes, ‘No, I think he'd really, really be good.' [Steinbrenner] says, ‘He doesn't even like to talk to the media.' [Filippelli] goes, ‘Yeah, but when he talks to them, he says really good stuff.’ So he convinced George. I don't think O'Neill had that in his plans at all.”
Now, O’Neill, David Cone and Joe Girardi are the analysts next to Kay. O’Neill and Cone in particular are an entertaining duo, with Cone’s analytical bent a nice complement to O’Neill’s folksiness.
Jared Boshnack, who took over for Filippelli in 2025, said of Kay: “More people need to know this: Michael is the ultimate quarterback. He is always looking to enhance our coverage, whether that's with his booth partners or from what the truck is able to provide and the images in front of him. He's outstanding in making all this work. He is the glue in many ways.”
Kay has his detractors — what play-by-play announcer in his 24th season wouldn't? — but you know what you're going to get from him when you tune in. The same couldn't be said in 2002, when Kay was a gamble.
Was it a good one? Nearly a quarter-century later, you'd have to say YES.
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
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